Mount Ayr Fisheries Management & Hatchery

The Mount Ayr Fisheries Management office is located north of Mount Ayr just below Loch Ayr Lake. The team manages public fishing waters in Adams, Clarke, Decatur, Madison, Page, Ringgold, Taylor and Union counties. Some of the larger and more popular bodies of water in this area are Green Valley Lake, Lake Icaria, Little River Watershed Lake, Three Mile Lake, Twelve Mile CreekLake and West Lake Osceola.

Mount Ayr management team activities include:

• Survey and assess fish populations in lakes, rivers and streams.
• Install fish habitat and other structures.
• Perform fish kill investigations.
• Conduct fishing clinics and outdoor classrooms.
• Raise bluegill, blue catfish, hybrid striped bass,largemouth bass and redear sunfish.

The Mount Ayr Fish Hatchery, located one mile north of Mount Ayr, was established in 1941. The initial design consisted of five earthen diked ponds. Three additional ponds were added in 1961 increasing the total production area to a little over six acres. Recent changes to pond design and layout have decreased the number of rearing ponds to five with an increased production area of approximately eight acres.

Raised Fish

Historically, the facility has raised: 

• channel catfish
• largemouth bass
• bluegills
• redear sunfish
• walleye, sauger
• smallmouth bass
• hybrid striped bass

Recent production has focused on hybrid striped bass, largemouth bass, bluegills and blue catfish.

Hybrid striped bass fry are grown into fingerlings from fry shipped to Mount Ayr in early May from other hatcheries. The two-inch long fingerlings are then stocked into southwest and south central Iowa lakes, Coralville Reservoir and Rathbun Reservoir. Largemouth bass are grown to five inch fingerlings from two inch fingerlings received from the Fairport Fish Hatchery. Bluegill production is achieved through natural reproduction then stocked in the fall.